The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is a subsidiary body of the United Nations which seeks to lead international efforts to combat world hunger. FAO has numerous programmes of work focused on securing the long-term sustainable development and utilization of the world’s fisheries including the Committee on Fisheries (COFI).

The Committee on Fisheries (COFI) is the only global intergovernmental forum where major international fisheries and aquaculture problems and issues are examined and recommendations addressed to governments, regional fishery bodies, NGOs, fishworkers, FAO and the international community. COFI members meet biennially to review the status of global fisheries and aquaculture.

The 29th Meeting of COFI took place from January 31-February 4, 2011 in Rome, Italy. A delegation on behalf of the Pew Environment Group (PEG)   attended to support efforts on shark conservation, deep sea protection and bycatch management and to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Pew successfully achieved several policy objectives through advocacy efforts. Final outcomes of the COFI meeting included agreement on early implementation of the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA), and in particular of its Article 21, which establishes the need to provide support to developing countries to implement the Agreement. On sharks, FAO was asked by COFI to prepare a report on the extent of implementation of the International Plan of Action (IPOA)-Sharks, as well as the related challenges that participating countries face. COFI also endorsed the first International Guidelines on Bycatch Management and Reduction of Discards. 

The PEG team worked with a number of countries in an effort to keep the discussion and focus on deep sea bottom trawling within the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), rather than transitioning the topic to FAO.  The team also worked with countries to retain the existing language of FAO’s remit in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species’ (CITES) listing criteria under the existing CITES/FAO Memorandum of Understanding,  ensuring that FAO will continue to focus on scientific issues, rather than  social and economic factors.

PEG also hosted a successful side event titled “Moving Forward on Sharks and Port State Measures: Assessing the Impact of, and Next Steps for, the IPOA Sharks and the Port State Measures Agreement.”  Pew and TRAFFIC released a joint analysis reviewing the implementation of the IPOA-Sharks by the Top 20 shark catching entities and presented results and recommendations to improve implementation. The PSMA presentation highlighted three weaknesses of the current system of port State controls to combat IUU fishing illustrating what is needed to achieve an effective global enforcement system. The event attracted over 80 attendees from more than 18 countries, including several heads of delegation, representatives from intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and NGOs.